


No Grave Can Hold My Body Down

by aaphids



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Blood and Gore, F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:22:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23829796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aaphids/pseuds/aaphids
Summary: Anne Boleyn and her cousin Katherine Howard, are just trying to survive in this new, cold world. As Anne tries to protect and raise Kitty in the apocalypse, Catherine Parr is trying to save the world the only way she knows how, closing herself off from everyone in a desperate attempt to find the scientists looking for a cure.They never see it coming, but they need each other more than words can say.
Relationships: Anne Boleyn/Catherine Parr
Comments: 30
Kudos: 90





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger Warnings - references to previous abuse and sexual assault (nothing graphic or descriptive), sexist slurs, swear words. (If theres anything else I've missed or you think I need to change the archive warnings or rating, please let me know!)
> 
> Apologies in advance for any errors, I got goblin brain. And yes, this work is titled after a Hozier lyric (Work Song, check it out it's a banger)

When the end of the world happened, it happened suddenly, and all at once. There were no people on the street screaming bloody murder about the end times, no men in tin hats, no fires, the earth didn't cave in under their feet. In fact for most people, it was just a usual Thursday, weekend plans were being made and everyone was looking forward to the joys and relief Friday would bring. Most people were feeling this way, atleast, this last sense of normality that the world begs for now. Not Anne Boleyn though. 

Well, that's not entirely true. All things considered, Anne's last day before the world ends was actually normal in most ways. It was about twelve in the afternoon, the day overcast as most days in London are, large threatening grey clouds shielding the sun, almost denying the people beneath it a last happy day under its warmth. Her hair tied up in its usual space buns, a favourite for the Boleyn girl for many years, and kept in their place even after the world went to hell. Her car is stuck in traffic, the universe laughing at them as they complain over this trivial but necessary task, thinking to itself, "Are you unhappy right now? Just wait and see what misery is in store for you." These things, they were normal everyday things that Anne expected and loved in her own way. What wasn't normal was her cousin Katherine Howard sitting next to her in the passenger seat, still in her school uniform, with a square white bandage under her left eye. No, that was new. 

Katherine had always been quite shy, and not particularly outspoken. She opted to listen, jumping into conversations when she was needed in her own timid and quiet way. That didn't mean she couldn't be as loud and passionate as her cousin, in fact, Anne treasured the moments when Katherine started the conversation first to talk about whatever was interesting her most, her voice raising an octave with awe as her hands flapped around to make excited gestures. 

(These conversations always ended in Katherine smiling sheepishly and withdrawing, "Sorry, got a bit carried away there." Everytime she ended the conversations this way, and everytime Annes heart broke. Knowing that this need to apologise stemmed from people shrugging noncommittally, or telling her to shut up about her beautiful passions. Anne wanted to kick and scream at these people, but opted for gently taking her cousins hand and telling her, "Never apologize to me. I'll always listen, I promise.") 

One could imagine Annes surprise then, when she got a call at work from her cousin's school asking if she could come pick Katherine up.

"What's happened? Is she alright?", Anne said in a concerned tone, mind immediately fearing for the worst. It felt as though she had just waved goodbye to her cousin as she left their flat like a hurricane after waking up late, rushing out the door with an energy bar clasped tightly in one hand to get to her bus on time. 

_Oh God, what if that chicken I fed her for dinner last night was off and she's sick, or what if something happened on the way to school and she's hurt, what if someone raised their voice at her and she had a panic attack and I wasn't there to hold her and help her breathe through it and she's stopped breathing altogether-_

"Katherine's gotten into a fight." The office administrator interrupted Annes spiralling bluntly, and her heart skipped a beat. Imagining Katherine in a fight was something so out of this world that Anne struggled to process this information for a bit, thinking of Kit, fists raised and eyes dark was something unfamiliar and scary. 

"... Miss Boleyn? Are you still there?" 

"Yes! Yes I'll be right there. Tell her-" Anne faltered for a moment as she struggled to think of words that could comfort her cousin. 

"Tell her not to worry, and I'll be as quick as I can." 

Anne almost broke the road laws multiple times in her haste to get to Katherine, and when she arrived to the schools main office (Anne grimacing at its bleak look and feel, empty wooden walls barren of anything that could give her cousin some comfort or reassurance) she was briefed on the situation quickly and how, "fighting, as you know, is not tolerated here" and that "Miss Howard will be suspended for a week, and must write an apology letter to the victim." Finally, she was pointed to a hallway, where Katherine sat on what looked to be a very uncomfortable wooden chair. Her face was hidden from Anne with her head turned down to the navy blue carpet, her bubblegum pink hair covering her face in whisps hanging from her usual ponytail.

(Oh, how Kat had begged for Anne to let her dye her hair that colour. 

"Please, Annie?" She had asked as she held the box up to her, a woman on the cover with bright pink hair and pale clear skin. 

"I'll never ask you for anything ever again! I'll do the washing up by myself for a month, I'll take the rubbish out even when it's dark and scary, I'll always remember to do my homework without you reminding me. Please, please, please, please!" 

Really, how could Anne refuse with an offer like that?

And when Kat forgot to take the rubbish out later that night, Anne never said a word.) 

Looking at her cousin sitting there, looking lonely, tense, and miserable, it tore Anne to pieces. 

"Kitty…" 

Katherine doesn't look up at the nickname, just continues to look to the floor, picking slightly at the cotton baubles on her scratchy school jumper. 

Anne opted to crouch down in front of her, trying to meet her eye line. 

"Hey Kit-Kat. I've come to take you home, ok?" 

Anne remembers how Katherine hadn't even looked up let alone responded to her when she said that, just slid off the chair to grab the bright pink (slightly scruffy from years of use) bag at her feet, and walked past Anne and out the door to her car parked outside. Silent all throughout, and silent now. 

Anne looked over worriedly at her cousin, sitting with her arms crossed defensively next to her and looking dejectedly out the window, If Anne focused enough she could almost see Kats sorrow filled face reflected in the window. 

"Whew, would you look at these clouds Kit, no doubt they're gonna fill up with rain any second now." Anne's tone was light as she tried desperately to claw at some sort of conversation, anything to get her cousin's mind off whatever happened. 

"Lucky I came to get you, huh? I hated spending the day at school when it rained. That dampness goes straight to your bones and makes you feel horrible all day, don't you think?" 

Still the car stayed silent with the absence of Anne's words. 

"Kitty?" 

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I guess so." Katherine finally looks up at her, and immediately Annes heart breaks for her. Kat's eyes were sunken deep and red, Anne released a sad sigh. 

"Oh, Kit. You look exhausted." Anne reaches over to tuck a stray piece of hair behind her ear as Katherine shrugs, looking out the window once more.

"Don't you want to know what happened?" Katherine's words come out in a slightly rushed and bitter manner, "Why I ruined your day by making you come get me?" 

Anne shook her head, "Not if you're not ready to tell me Kit. And hey," Anne takes her hand off the steering wheel again to grasp Katherine's hand in hers, off handedly wishing they weren't in her old beat up car having this conversation. 

"You will never ruin my day when it comes to something like this, whenever you need me I'll be there, I promised you that, remember?" 

(Annes mind drifts off slightly to the day she finally got custody of Katherine, looking at her cousin's scrawny figure and tangled hair, a blank expression on her face as she's told she gets to live with Anne now. She remembers feeling an overwhelming urge more than ever to protect and provide for her cousin, so she never had to see her look this broken again. Anne remembers whispering promises in her ear of a better life, while Katherine clutched at the back of her shirt, almost as if she thought holding her any less tight would make Anne leave. That urge is still just as strong, even now, three years later. She just hoped that Katherine, deep down, is happier now than she was since then.) 

Eventually, Katherine nods, and Anne smiles. 

"Okay. Okay, that's good." Anne releases the breath she was holding and glances back at the road, waiting for any sign of movement. She desperately wanted to get Kat home, but the traffic continued to be relentless. After a moment's silence, Kat speaks up again. 

"There was this guy, a senior, he-", Anne watched as Katherine took her hand from Annes hold and wrung her hands in her lap, licking her lips. 

"He was spreading _those_ rumors again." 

Annes jaw clenches for a second, remembering the day Katherine had ran into her arms when she asked her how school was going, sobbing and between gasping breaths telling Anne about the relentless bullying she had been experiencing at school. 

(It reminded Anne too much of her own high school experience, being called a slut by people she didn't even know in the halls, how people had sniggered and talked behind her back about how she was the school whore, how she would do anything you asked her to if you got her drunk enough.) 

It sickened Anne to her stomach knowing Katherine was going through the same thing she did, how badly she had wanted to give everyone in that school a piece of her mind, but she had pushed all those thoughts down quickly after being brought back to the present by Katherine's desperate sobs, soothing her as best she could. 

Anne lets herself be grounded by her cousin's presence again, nodding her head at Katherines words. 

"I understand, you got angry, and rightfully so." Anne paused, trying to find the right words. 

"You've worked so hard to deal and move on from these things Kat, and I know you know that. We'll make a plan to deal with this too, I promise."

She moved to place her hand atop Katherine's head, smoothing down stray hairs. Just as soon as she did this, Katherine jerked her head away from Annes touch;

"No! I-" Katherine's shoulders were held tightly up to her ears, as she sputtered out words that were desperate to be heard.

"They weren't just rumors about me, but-", Katherine looks up, tears in her eyes threatening to escape at any moment. 

"He said things about you, too." Katherines voice cracked as tears started to dribble and fall from her eyes. "He said you were forced to take me in, how you could never really want me, and how I'm a disappointment, and how deep down you can't wait 'til I'm eighteen and move out and how-" 

Anne stopped Katherines blubbering words by quickly holding the girl to her chest, letting her whimper and sob as she clung to Anne. Anne didn't shush her, just rubbed her back soothingly, tracing shapes and patterns. Although their position was slightly uncomfortable (again, Anne wishes they were having this conversation anywhere but here) she tries her best to comfort her cousin.

"I'm so sorry you had to hear all that Kitty, I can't imagine how angry and upset you must have felt, and still feel now." Annes voice was soft and thick with understanding, and she pressed a kiss to Kats hairline, as she sniffled and nodded. 

"But listen to me," Anne's tone was stern but not strict as she tilted her cousin's head up with a finger under her chin to make her look Anne in the eyes, making sure she hears these words soundly. 

"What he said, none of it's true. None. Do you know how happy I was when I finally got to take you home? I was buzzing all day, knowing that when I picked you up I would get to see your face every morning after that." Anne smiles at the memory, and she chokes up her words a bit with fondness. 

Annes voice returns to its softness as she composes herself, "It was always my choice to have you. Always." 

Katherine looks into her eyes silently for a moment, before nodding and smiling shyly. And as soon as Anne saw that, she knew she had to get a bigger smile out of her. 

"And how could I be disappointed in you? Your grades are stellar, you have the most beautiful voice, and everyday I find something new to be impressed with." Anne said with a grin.

Katherine gave an embarrassed smile and a quiet "Hhhhhh" at Annes admission, burying her head into her chest again as Anne chuckled. 

Katherine's slightly muffled voice came a second later, "Okay, you can stop with the compliments now." 

Anne gasped dramatically, and put on a silly voice, "How can I stop when I know such impressive things about my dear cousin Katherine Howard, who can eat fifteen chocolate digestives in a row and not get sick. You expect me not to shout that from the rooftops, miss Howard?" 

Katherine pushed herself out of Anne's hold laughing loudly, bending over and clutching her stomach, and Anne grinned at the sight and sound. When Kat calmed down, Anne reached over to wipe away the tear tracks on her cousins cheeks with her thumb, and kissed her forehead with a loud smack, making Kat giggle some more. 

Anne looked back to the road, noticing that the traffic was finally starting to move and they were getting closer to the intersection that would lead them to the road their flat was on. 

"Y'know," Anne started, smirking to herself, "I think in our freezer there just might be a pint of someone's favourite ice cream." Her tone rising in a sing-song voice near the end. She heard an excited gasp next to her, and knew without even looking next to her that her cousin was fully alert, an eager grin overtaking her face. 

(In all honesty, it was a miracle that Anne had managed to hide the strawberry ice cream from her. Katherine's sweet tooth was relentless, oftentimes waking her up in the night as she heard her cousin swipe something sweet from the kitchen. It had scared the hell out of her the first time, thinking someone was robbing the place, Anne had made her way to the kitchen with the baseball bat she kept under her bed heavy in her hands. Only to be met by Katherine illuminated by the fridge light in the dark helping herself to another slice of cake they had enjoyed for dessert that night. She didn't exactly encourage the midnight snacks, but when she found her there she always joined her for a chat, making sure it wasn't nightmares keeping her awake.) 

This time, it was Katherine who took Annes hand in hers. 

“Thanks, Annie.” She said softly with a small smile, eyes glistening. 

Anne smiled back, and squeezed Katherines hand as the traffic moved ever forward to the intersection, 

"My pleasure Kitty, we'll get that into you, snuggle up on the couch with a few episodes of Drag Race, and everything will be alright."

Looking back at this moment, Anne wishes she hadn't spoken so soon. Wishes she had held her cousin's hand just a bit tighter, for just a bit longer, in this normal world they both knew and loved so much. 

Because as soon as the words came from her mouth and she turned into the intersection, a car came speeding out of nowhere, crashing into the right side of Anne's car.

And it was all over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, this is my first time posting something here, so I hope you enjoyed! I plan to continue this and have a basic idea of where the story will go, so hopefully, updates will be somewhat frequent.
> 
> Recently I've become very obsessed with this musical, and have consumed a lot of works on it, so I figured I'd have my go at writing something for it as I've had a few ideas I've wanted to explore for a while now. I don't really consider myself a writer, I'm definitely more of an artist and am severely out of practice, so if you have any criticisms on the story so far, my interpretation of the characters and relationships, grammatical errors, etc. Please let me know! This is just me trying to branch out on my hobbies during quarantine basically.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings - Graphic but brief descriptions of violence and gore, a brief reference to suicide, swear words, sickness, use of weapons, and death. (If I've missed something please let me know!)

As the sun had risen over the horizon, casting an apricot hue across the forest's trees and land, Anne had risen with it. Anne has crouched down low amongst the soft grass and crunchy gravel, watching and listening for any sudden movements (the living or the un-dead kind). She’s hoping to kill a few more blackbirds, or maybe even a hare or two, before trudging the short distance back to the cabin where she was staying and had been calling home for the past six months. Anne hugs her jacket tighter around herself and smooths her hands over her trusted bow, she exhales a quiet breath, watches as it condenses into a small cloud in front of her. The silence of the woods continues and surrounds Anne almost comfortingly, this is as close as things got to calm these days. The loss of calm, of course, disrupted by the literal raising of the dead.

After the car crash, Anne and Kitty were incredibly lucky to escape the destroyed vehicle with minimal injuries, the universe granting this final mercy to the cousins as all hell broke loose around them.

"Are you okay?" Anne asked as she helped Kitty's limping form out of her crushed car, her voice croaky but laced with concern and slight shock as to what just happened to them, she looked Kitty up and down for any prominent physical injuries. 

Kitty coughed for a second before she nodded and turned to Anne, "My leg hurts, but I'm okay." Relief coursed through Anne, her head ached terribly and the cuts on her body were screaming at her, but at least Kitty was, for the most part, okay.

A sudden high pitched scream brought Anne out of her thoughts, making the cousins quickly snap their heads over to the sound across the road, and that's when they saw one for the very first time.

No amount of TV shows, movies, or video games could ever prepare Anne for seeing a rotten and tattered living corpse chew without relenting on a woman's neck. Its jaw snapped loudly as its teeth tore into the woman, it ripped and pulled at the flesh until her neck was unrecognizable. The noise of the chewing was one thing, but the screams, it was a whole other thing. Piercing and gurgling as the blood spewed out from the poor woman's neck and mouth, it made Anne’s stomach churn. Out of the corner of Anne's eye, she could see her cousin was just as horror-stricken as she was, like Anne, she couldn’t seem to look away from the bloody scene. Clutching onto Anne’s shirt with such intensity that her knuckles had turned white, and staring with a haunted expression. (Anne had a horrible thought at that moment where the two cousins had stood frozen, she imagined Kitty in the women's place, her cousin's neck being torn apart in a bloody mess, and it was such a horrifying thought that it immediately put Anne into action.) Anne had picked Kitty up into her arms with her newfound adrenaline and ran as quickly as she could away from the gruesome scene, saw in her peripheral as more people tried to escape or were attacked by the mindless creatures. 

“Annie, what's happening to them?” Kats scared voice was like a siren in the mayhem, and Anne held her infinitesimally closer. 

“Why are they acting like that?” 

Anne begged her legs to go faster, and made her voice as comforting as possible, 

“Don’t look at them Kat, just keep your eyes on me.” 

The cousins had barely escaped with their lives that day, Anne had carried Kitty as far as she could from the chaos, and the two ended up in an abandoned building as they clung to one another. Anne had been right about the weather, it poured down. 

They lived day to day for a while, Anne scavenged for food and water where she could in a desperate attempt to keep her cousin provided for, always moving forward and never staying in the same place for too long. With this new world came Anne having to teach Kitty new rules and new skills to survive, like how to set up traps and snares and cook the rabbits and birds they caught, how to kill a zombie if Anne wasn’t there to do it for her, how to take care of any wounds, and maybe the most important one of all, to never speak to anyone.  
(“If you’re on your own-”  
“Why would I be on my own?”  
“But if you are, if you are and you even so much as suspect that someone might be close, you turn and run as fast you can in the opposite direction. Do you understand, Kitty?”  
“... I understand.”)  
Anne desperately hoped she was doing this right, but there was no guidebook on how to raise a sixteen-year-old girl in the apocalypse. (Well, maybe. If the internet was still a thing she could probably find some tips and tricks.) 

Eventually, Anne was able to pick up some weapons, a pistol with a few bullets that would keep her going for a while and a small dagger with a scarlet red handle. (Anne tries not to think about how she acquired the weapons, told herself it was okay to steal from that group of people, they already had a lot of weapons to protect themselves with, anyway. She never tells Kitty though.) She had given the dagger to Kitty (not without teaching her the proper safety precautions, of course), and kept the gun for herself. (Teaching herself how to shoot a gun was hard but worth it. Killing zombie bastards was way easier now.) Kitty was extremely quiet in those early days, barely spoke a word, just affirmative nods or shakes of the head, and it had scared Anne more than the undead roaming around whatever shelter they were staying in that night. That was until they found a small abandoned cabin in the woods. 

(Anne had actually planned on teaching Kitty how to shoot that day, and was slightly grateful that the lesson was delayed with the excitement of finding the abandoned cabin. Imagining Kitty shooting something or someone at that time, was just a bit too much for Anne to handle. She hated the day that she had to put the cold, menacing metal pistol in her cousin's soft and caring hands, hated the way she flinched, and squeaked at the noise after shooting at an empty tin of canned peaches that the cousins had shared for dessert the night before. She taught Kitty to respect it, went over the lesson on how to aim, fire, and reload as well as how to remove and put the safety back on the gun multiple times until she was satisfied. Anne tells herself that Kitty is better for it, but she still can’t help but feel guilty that she’s contributing to her little cousin's loss of innocence.) 

The cabin certainly hadn’t looked abandoned, with its content organised in a way that was uncommon now. Just like the living and the undead, the objects in this world were scattered miserably as they lay deserted. But this place was clean, a grey, worn-looking couch sat in the middle of the room, a few colourful and oh so comfortable looking throw pillows and a wooly blanket laid on top, with a similar-looking armchair close by. Even the kitchen didn't look too dirty, and Anne felt her mouth water at the thought that maybe some food was hidden in the wooden cupboards held up along the wall. A desk in the right corner of the room was set up with a few weapons, a gun and some bullets scattered, along with a sleek wooden bow and a few flimsy-looking arrows. Anne had felt fear rise in her stomach at the thought that maybe the cousins were stepping on someone else's toes here, and that any moment someone would walk in on the two and kill them thinking they were thieves. But the fear was squashed slightly as she heard her cousin groan loudly from across the room that there was no food being kept in the cupboards, proving that maybe, just maybe, the cousins were being given a break. 

(Anne had soon discovered the definite reason as to why it was abandoned, finding a zombie hung by its neck close by from a tree on one of her morning hunts for food. It snarled and swayed on the rope as it tried to reach out to Anne. She had made sure to hide its body after killing it as discreetly and respectfully as possible so Katherine wouldn't see him.) 

Anne gave Kitty the only bedroom in the cabin, opting to sleep on the couch, which was instantly met by her cousin's protests. 

"But you work so hard to provide for us! You deserve the bed the most." 

"And give up those soft pillows on the couch? In your dreams Kitty."

Kitty didn't give up though, her stubbornness leading her to fall asleep on the couch, forcing Anne to carry her to the bed for a few nights. (Not that Anne complained though, it made her reminiscent of the movie nights the cousins would share in their old life, that usually ended with Kitty's soft breaths as she predictably fell asleep with her head on Anne’s shoulder.) Eventually, Kitty started to fall asleep in her new room, learned that no matter where she fell asleep Anne would pick her up and take her there. One thing Anne never refused, however, was when Kitty woke her up in the night after a nightmare, always welcomed her on the couch, and let her cousin's small warm body cuddle up to her. Humming some French lullaby to her cousin's shaking form as she waited for Kitty's breathing to even out indicating she was asleep once more. 

The cabin slowly became their home, it wasn’t particularly large, but it was the best living quarters they had stayed in for a long time. The two cousins adapted to a daily routine of Anne waking up in the early hours of the morning to check their snares and hunt in the woods for any supplies, returning an hour or two later to have breakfast with Kitty. The two usually spent the day setting up or repairing the traps they had scattered outside the cabin, returning later on for lunch and domestic activities, (Kitty had recently taken up drawing, and Anne snatched as many supplies as she could scavenge on her monthly trips to the town nearby, encouraging her cousin as the walls of the cabin slowly became decorated with Kittys art.) until it was time for Anne to prepare dinner, with Kitty helping where she could. The day would be finished off by Anne reading aloud to Kitty, (Anne had also found a library in the town, bringing home a few new books each month for her cousin and herself. Always returning them after they were done, as Kat requested that they keep up proper library etiquette) reading a chapter or two before Anne would tuck Kitty into bed and press a kiss to her forehead as she said goodnight. Anne would then proceed to check the perimeters of the cabin, listening out for any threats, until eventually she would be satisfied that they would be safe for the night and turning in herself. 

Anne was incredibly grateful for this second chance of a normal life with her cousin, it's a new type of normal for them, but at least it's something. Of course, her home was wherever Kitty was, but it was nice to not have the fear of a zombie tearing her to shreds out in the open anymore when she went to sleep. 

A sudden crackle of a tree branch snaps Anne back into the present, looking up into the trees above to see a plump looking wood pigeon sitting on a branch, unsuspecting to Anne's presence down below. Anne rises up from where she was crouching as silently as she could, raising her bow and placing a sleek arrow she had made the day before onto the arrow rest, taking in a breath as she drew the string back and aimed at the wood pigeon. Anne let the string of the bow go with an exhale and the arrow zoomed past her head, it hits the pigeon square in the chest, making it fall to the ground with a thud. 

Anne mentally pats herself on the back as she walks over to remove her arrow from the pigeon's chest, she places both the bird and the bloodied arrow inside her bag with the other dead animals she had acquired that morning. Satisfied with the food she had managed to get, Anne began walking the distance back to the cabin, slightly anxious to get back and make sure that her cousin was okay.  
Anne smiles as the cabin comes into view, making her way up the steps and rapping her knuckles on the door to make their signature knock, (two quick taps followed by Anne sliding her knuckles down the wood.) and she waits patiently for a few seconds before hearing the soft padding of her cousin's footsteps and the sound of the door unlocking. It opens in one swift motion to reveal a sleepy Kitty, still in her pyjamas with sleep mussed hair. 

“Good mor-”, Kitty interrupts herself with a large yawn, covering her mouth with her hand as she did so, “Good morning.” Kitty finishes with a smile. 

Anne chuckles at the sight and brings a hand up to smooth down her cousin's unruly dark hair, she closes the door behind her and moves past Kitty to put her things down on their small kitchen table. 

“Good morning Kitty. Sleep well?” Anne asks as she brings out the game she scored for the day, she watches as her cousin moves to sit across from her in one of the chairs. 

“Mhm.”, Kitty says sleepily as she eyes up the food her cousin brought home, her stomach growling slightly at the display. 

Anne smiles fondly and begins putting away the food and other edible berries she scavenged in their cupboards. 

"Anything interesting happen while I was gone?" Anne asks as she rearranges and takes stock of their things. 

"Nope," Kitty says, popping the p. She props her face up with her hands, elbows rubbing on the wood as she leans on the table, 

"Well, actually, I pretty much just woke up, so if something interesting did happen, I wasn't awake to witness it." 

Anne tuts, turning around and leaning against the counter behind her, 

"Lazybones." She says with a grin. 

"Oi." Kitty furrows her eyebrows in fake annoyance as she pouts up at Anne, making them both laugh. 

Anne cherishes these moments where she can get Kitty to laugh, she had spent so long in the first couple months barely cracking a smile at Anne, so she makes it her mission every day now to keep her cousin smiling. Unfortunately, Anne knows she has to ruin this moment by reminding Kitty about the tedious but necessary tasks ahead of them. 

"So…" Anne starts apprehensively, not completely ready to lose the light air in the room. 

"You ready to practice your aim today?" Anne smiles at Kitty, hoping that her cousin will return it. Instead, Kitty’s expression falls, and she turns her gaze to her lap as she sits up straight and tense, her hands curling into fists as they lay on the table. 

"Yeah, I guess so." Anne sighs sadly at her cousins’ response, she knows how much Kitty hates shooting, so she moves to sit across from her, reaching over to clasp Kitty’s hands in hers.

"Kit, we talked about this. You know it's-"

"It's necessary. I know." Kitty interrupts Anne and looks up to meet her eyes, her expression serious. 

"Doesn't make it any less scary…" Kitty trails off nervously and looks away again, making Anne frown sadly at her cousins’ admission, and tries to think of what could comfort her. 

"What can I do to make it less scary? Whatever it is, I'll do it, I promise." Anne says finally, deciding the best way to help Kitty was to ask her. Kitty is silent for a moment, a crease in her brow as she thinks the question over, before looking up at Anne with a shy expression. 

"Hold my hand while we walk over to the practice area?" Kitty asks quietly, looking hopefully at Anne, and Anne grins as she looks at Kitty’s hands still in hers resting on the table. She meets Kitty’s gaze again with a soft expression. 

"Looks like we're already halfway there." 

On the other side of the forest, labored breaths escape Cathy Parr’s lips as she staggers through the trees and bushes, her shoes scrape the earth as she struggles to keep upright. Cathy didn't think it would end like this, didn't think her last moments would be spent lost delirious in the woods, her body caked in sweat and dirt, her limbs aching and her head pounding as if someone was taking a hammer and repeatedly bashing her head. Cathy sneaks a glance down at the bandages loosely wrapped around her left arm, grimacing at how dirty and tattered they had become. She knows that the large wound was getting more and more infected over time, but being far too weak to look after it properly, she decides to focus on getting one foot in front of the other. Cathy has always hated being out of control, she remembers how she had started the last ordinary day of her life not being the one in power, panic coursing through her veins as she called her godmother in a frenzy after waking up late. 

Cathy’s words came out rushed as she dashed around her tiny flat, trying to get ready as quickly as she could, with her phone held up to her right ear by her shoulder as she tore through her closet to find something suitable to wear. 

"Catalina I am so, _so_ sorry. I thought I had set my alarm to wake me up on time for our breakfast but it didn't work and-" 

"It's fine querida," her godmothers’ soothing voice stopped Cathy’s frantic searching momentarily and she inhaled shakily.

"We'll just reschedule for another day, it's really no problem." Cathy sat her phone on her nightstand as she pulled on some jeans, still just as hurried as before. 

"But I promised that I would be there, aren't you mad that I didn't show?" Cathy’s voice wavered slightly as she almost slipped and fell in her haste to put her jeans on. 

Catalina chuckled at her goddaughters’ antics, "Of course I'm not mad, it's just breakfast you silly thing. It's not like we'll never have another opportunity to gossip while eating pancakes again, will we?" 

Cathy’s body sagged with relief at Catalina not being angry with her, she smiled and nodded, before quickly remembering her godmother couldn't actually see her. 

"Right, of course," Cathy said, finally slowing down. 

If Cathy could go back in time, she wouldn't have slowed down, not even for a second. She would have gotten into her little blue car and sped to her godmothers’ house, wished she could have felt Catalina’s warm comforting arms around her one last time. But it was too late now, Cathy had lost all hope that her godmother had survived the outbreak, and she just couldn't bear to be around anyone else after losing her. Cathy had tried, honestly, she had, she stayed with four women at the beginning of it all, they had watched each other’s backs and learned to survive together as the world turned upside down. But her time with them had been abruptly cut short, as a group of bandits had cornered the unsuspecting group in town one day, killing two of the women instantly and injuring the other. Cathy had fled the scene, not looking back even when she heard her group members begs and pleads for her life cut off by a piercing gunshot. (Cathy still has nightmares about that day, not even her dreams would let her forget her guilt.) So now, Cathy preferred to be alone, never letting anyone get close for fear that what happened that day would happen again. 

Cathy stops for a second, she leans against a tall, thick tree and squeezes her eyes shut, focusing on the rough bark against her right hand instead of the long cut on her left arm that screams out for attention every second of every day. She feels the book in her rucksack like a weight, hears it scuffle with her empty water bottle (being dehydrated is definitely not helping Cathy's current situation), empty wrappers of food (again, being starved of food for the past few days is also not a positive factor here), and the small picture frame of Cathy and her godmother. The picture had been taken the day Cathy had graduated from university, her smiling shyly as she held up her graduation certificate with Catalina’s arm draped around her shoulder, a huge proud grin spread on her face. Cathy had snatched the picture in her haste to escape her flat, as she heard un-dead moans trying to break down her door that got louder by the second. 

Both the book and the picture were a constant reminder of why she was doing this, why she was going in the specific path she was alone despite being horribly injured. In her old life, Cathy was a researcher and a writer, her Friday nights would be spent staying up late into the early hours of the morning writing down notes about whatever was interesting her the most. 

("Querida, why don't you go out with your friends tonight instead." Her godmother would say, looking at her with a concerned expression at Cathy's deep purple eye bags. Cathy would only laugh and reply,

"Catalina, my friends are the multiple tabs of Wikipedia pages on my laptop." 

Catalina never found this as amusing as Cathy.)

What Cathy liked best was learning about anything and everything, and there was no exception to that, even in the apocalypse. The book in her rucksack is filled to the brim with notes on every single thing about the zombies that have taken over her world. She spends her time studying them discreetly, watching from afar as they lurch and stumble looking for anyone that would become their next meal. Cathy knows every weak point, how fast they could move, how quickly it took to turn into one, and how well their senses work. But the two things Cathy didn't know, what kept her up at night and made her toss and turn, was how the outbreak started, and what the cure was. This was why Cathy was on the path she was, she was heading west, where she had heard a group of scientists was working as hard as they could on a cure for the infection that takes over your entire being and turns you into something unrecognizable. Cathy had heard the information while she was scavenging in town, two men had walked past her unsuspecting of her presence in the corner of the pharmacy. Cathy wasn't trying to eavesdrop on the two men's conversation, she was just waiting for them to leave so she could move on too, but her ears perked up when she heard one of them utter the word "cure" from his lips. 

"Would you shut the fuck up about a cure. It's never gonna happen, Alex." His friend had said, venom dripping from his words. 

"No Digs, this is real. I've been hearing things-"

"How would you be hearing things?"

"I heard it from that guy who sold us those guns last week. He said out west there's a group of know-it-all scientists who are coming up with a cure. Any minute now we could be saved." The man’s tone was hopeful and excited, and Cathy had felt it too. That glimmer of hope that she had all but forgotten feeling that the world could be saved. And Cathy knew right then and there that she had to help those scientists, even though the man could've been wrong, that Cathy could walk all the way out there and never find a single lab, she knew she had to at least try to get there. 

But this is how it was ending, Cathy had started this new life out of control and she was ending it that way too, as the fever from the deep infected cut wracks through her body and she struggles evermore to stay upright. She looks down at the hill she was facing over, looks out at the broken yet still beautiful world she's about to leave. Cathy almost thinks she sees two figures out there, but shoves the thought away as quickly as it had arrived, puts it down to her delirious brain making things up in a desperate attempt to save her. Cathy hears the sound of a gun firing below her and the shock of the sudden noise makes her knees buckle and her hand slide away from the tree holding her up, and she begins to fall in slow motion down the hill. Before she succumbs into unconsciousness, Cathy thinks of her godmother and hopes that wherever she ends up, Catalina is there too. 

Anne keeps her promise, holding onto Kitty’s hand with a vice-like grip as they make their way over to the small training ground Anne had set up on the other side of the forest. She reluctantly let's go on arrival to set up one of the empty tin cans she brought along for target practice on a wooden stump. The great thing about this part of the woods was the deafening waterfall across from them, drowning out any noise the gun would make and therefore keeping the cousins safe from any undead nearby that might hear them. Anne walks back to her cousin, a reassuring smile plastered on her face. 

"Alright, Kit." Anne starts, moving to put the handgun loaded with six bullets into her cousin's hands. 

"Let's start from the beginning, just like I taught you." Kitty nods shakily at Anne, nervousness practically radiating from her, but she does what she's told. 

Kitty raises her arms into the firing-ready position, aiming at the tin can sitting a few feet away and spreading her right hand’s fingers into a grip that's firm but not tight around the guns handle, and she steadies it with her left hand. Anne gives a reassuring hum and moves her hands up to guide Kitty’s fingers away from the slide, making sure she won't hurt herself later when the gun fires. 

"Great job Kit-Kat," Anne says with a smile, she takes her hands away and moves back to help with her firing stance, only nudging her a little bit as memory takes ahold of Kitty and she goes into the position with ease. 

"Have you been practicing without me?" Anne says, a proud grin spread across her face as she admires her cousin's abilities, and Kitty gives her a shy smile. 

"Maybe just a little bit," Kitty admits, and Anne’s grin grows wider.

"Let's see if your aim has improved too then, shall we?" Says Anne cheekily, and Kitty nods with newfound confidence. 

"When you're ready Kit." Anne moves behind Kitty, bringing her hands up to block her cousin's ears from the noise. Kitty inhales slowly making sure her aim is as precise as possible, and she presses the trigger down in one swift motion. BANG the gun fires and the cousins hear the bullet connect with the tin can, making a loud clinking noise as it topples over to the forest floor. The two stand still in shock, Kitty had never hit the can on her first go during their practices, and it soon catches up with them as to what just happened.

"I did it…" Kitty starts quietly, and a gleeful grin spreads across her face. 

"I did it! I did it on the first go!" She squeals and jumps up and down (not before turning the safety of the gun back on, of course) and Anne grins with her, moving to ruffle her hair like she's thirteen again and not a sixteen-year-old nearly as tall as she is. Anne holds up her hand for a high-five, which her cousin quickly accepts. 

"I knew you could do it!" Anne beams, her voice drips with pride. 

"Not so scary when you're good at it, huh?" Anne says, and Kitty can't help but nod. 

"Remember though, when it's the real thing and you have to shoot a zombie or an animal… or maybe even a person, I won't be there to cover your ears with my hand." Anne reminds her gravely, and Kitty nods seriously. Anne quickly brings back the light mood by smiling proudly at Kitty again. 

"But this is great Kit! Soon we can practice without my hands blocking the noise, maybe even move you onto some moving targets, you could come with me on one of my next hu-" Annes excited rambling is cut off by the sound of snapping branches and the scraping of dirt, she immediately spins on her heel to the right facing the hill and drawing her gun out, moving protectively in front of her cousin.

Anne watches as a body rolls down the hill violently, making no signs of stopping until they land with a loud thud at the bottom a couple of feet away from the cousins. 

And two suddenly became three.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again!
> 
> Just wanna say thank you so much to everyone who left kudos or a nice comment/feedback on the first chapter! I honestly did not expect such a kind response or for people to like this story at all, so I'm incredibly grateful and appreciate all the support. 
> 
> This chapter is still setting up the story a bit, so sorry if it's a little boring. The next chapter will have the plot advancing as well as Anne and Cathy's relationship. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and it lived up to any expectations :) I've also updated the tags a little and the archive warnings, I hope nothing in here disturbed you too much!
> 
> Hope you're all staying safe out there <33


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning - Very brief mentions of violence, descriptions of illness and injury (fever, sprained ankle), use and references to weapons such as knives and guns, and brief mentions of past abuse. (if I've missed anything please let me know)

Strangers were something Anne didn't think too much about back in the old days, it was something so ingrained in society that you would never be able to make friends with or get to know every single person on the planet. This fact hadn't upset her, and it certainly hadn't made her suspicious of everyone in arm’s length, (with the exception of the occasional man who would smile just a bit too politely at her when she was on the tube late at night after a long shift at work.) In fact, when passing someone on the street, she would have usually given a smile or a polite wave to them, maybe even a chipper "Hello!" if she was in a good mood. Sometimes, if Kitty were with her, she would copy her and do the same thing. Albeit, in a more shy manner, with never any eye contact involved. 

But it's not like that anymore. 

Now, Anne is constantly on edge that someone might be just around the corner and put her and Kitty in danger. So much so that she never spoke to anyone who she saw scavenging in the town, if she even saw anyone at all, and taught Kitty to do the same. 

Anne had decided a week into the outbreak that it would be just her and Kitty through it all after she watched a small group of people yell and argue over who would get the last drop of water. Seeing the young girl in the group who couldn't have been much older than Kitty refuse a sip with a tight smile and say, "It's alright, someone else can have it, I'm not even that thirsty," had shaken Anne to her very core. She couldn't imagine having to pick and choose over what her cousin got, couldn't possibly live with herself if she put her trust into some stranger and it ended with Kitty getting hurt. 

This is why Anne stands stock still like a deer caught in the headlights across from their new visitor, a scrawny looking woman laying on her back almost lifelessly amongst the dewy green grass. Her skin is a sickly pale colour and the sweat accumulating on her brow is visible even from where Anne is standing. The woman’s hair, as well as the grass surrounding her sticks to her skin like glue, and her blue denim coat is covered in dark patches of wetness and dirt. Anne would think the stranger was dead if not for the small rise and fall of her chest.

As she considers the woman's presence Anne tries to quell the anxiety in her stomach, choosing to focus on her cousin's slightly smaller hand in hers. 

"Annie?"

Her cousin's voice breaks through the wall of worry around her, and she looks over to see Kitty staring at her like she's a lifeboat in a storm. Instantly she swallows her fear and tries to comfort her cousin as best she can, pressing herself to Kittys side and squeezing her trembling hand. But she can’t help but notice that Kitty is gripping onto her dagger with an intense ferocity that makes her knuckles white, and Anne lets herself feel a flicker of pride that Kitty would fight just as hard as she taught her to stay alive. 

She decides to make this her focal point despite the terror. 

"It's alright, Kitty." Anne somehow manages to find her voice and rubs her thumb over Kitty’s knuckles, trying to reassure herself that it really is alright just as much as she tries to convince her cousin.

"What are we going to do?" Kitty asks, her voice barely above a whisper.

Anne contemplates this as every cell in her body itches for her to turn and run as fast as she can back to their home. Watches the woman whimper through laboured breaths as she thinks about locking all the windows and doors of their cabin to keep Kitty as safe and far away as possible from whoever the stranger was. 

What she does instead surprises even herself. 

"Kit, stay here for a bit," Anne says gently, giving her cousin's hand one last squeeze before letting go to make her way over to the stranger. 

She leans down close to the woman's body (not too close of course, Anne doesn’t let the possibility of this woman not being bit even dare cross her mind) and lets her eyes travel.

Upon closer inspection, Anne really doesn't know how this woman is still alive. Her body is littered in cuts caused by the fall and her right ankle sits in an odd position. _Probably sprained,_ Anne thinks as she watches the woman shake terribly and take shallow gulping breaths, her body clearly fighting every second to stay alive. A bandage around the woman's left arm has almost completely come loose revealing a large bruised and swollen red gash across her forearm. The stitches are barely holding it together and she winces at how much pain this person must be in. 

She has no idea why she's doing this, why she even cares that this stranger is in pain because Kitty should be her main priority right now, not some random woman who rolled into their lives less than five minutes ago. 

Even so, she can't help but feel like human life is so precious now. It always was, but now when zombies are trying every day to rip you from your loved ones and take your mind away from itself, she values it just a bit more so. 

"Is she going to be ok?" Kitty interrupts her thoughts, and Anne notices how close she's gotten.

"Thought I told you to stay back there," she huff's as she rises up from her crouched position. Kitty at least has the decency to look a little bit guilty, but she ignores Anne’s accusation all the same. 

"Are we going to take her back home and help her?" 

Anne's eyes widened at the question, "Help her?" she asks with a stunned expression. 

“Yes…? What else would we do?“ Kitty raises an eyebrow looking equally surprised. Anne hesitates and looks down at her mud stained shoes as if they will give her the answer of how to let her cousin down easy. 

If things were different, and Anne wasn’t faced with a world divided and its people living in distrust and fear with walking corpses roaming the earth she walked, of course, she would help. She wouldn’t even hesitate. But the world is that way, and no matter how hard Anne wishes and prays it wasn’t, no matter the thoughts she has late at night about this being just a bad dream she is yet to wake up from, she knows. She knows this is, of course, very real. She knows it from how Kitty shakes and sobs after a nightmare she has of Anne turning. Knows it by how hunger cramps unlike any she's ever felt have made her double over in pain. Knows it when she feels the sudden relief of seeing her cousins face after a particularly terrifying scavenge for supplies in town. 

So because it's real, because she knows this reality all too well, Anne has the unfortunate job of considering the implications of saving this woman. And ultimately, she realises she’s too much of a coward to take the chance.

"Kit, we don't know this woman or what she's capable of. If we bring her back to the cabin she could put us in danger," she shakes her head at the thought, "I'm sorry, we just can't." 

"But she's hurt!" Kitty’s voice rises slightly in desperation, "We have enough medicine to heal her at the cabin, and we can just take away her weapons when we get back," She meets Anne’s gaze with an unflinching stare, "she has no one else, Annie. it has to be us." 

Anne had expected to be met with her cousins disapproval, but the fire in her eyes does shake her just a little bit. She sighs and runs a hand through her hair, "Kat, I don't even know if I can help her-"

"We have to at least try," Kitty interrupts her, "and I'll help too! I can dress her wounds just like you taught me." 

She drops her head in guilt, can't bear to look at Kitty in the eyes anymore, "Kitty, please try and see this from my point of view,” she asks meekly, and she hears Kitty tisk and scuff her shoes against the dry leaves on the dirt. 

Anne rubs her arm nervously, the tenseness between the two cousins practically palpable. “Why do you even want to save her so badly?" she asks finally. Kitty falters for a moment, and she fidgets on the spot for a bit before taking a big gulp of air.

"I just-", she starts, then turns her head to look at the woman lying helplessly next to them, "-if it was me and I was hurt, but you weren't there to help me and I couldn't save myself…" she exhales, thinks of everything Anne has done for her and how much she means to her. "I'd want someone to make me better so I could get back to you." Kitty’s voice is firm and drips with compassion as she meets Anne’s gaze. Her admission makes tears sting at the corner of Anne's eyes, but she shuts her eyes tight and begs them not to fall. 

Anne lets her cousin's words hang in the air. She should say no, she knows that. But Kitty's looking at her with such determination and the woman's pained yelps are getting a lot harder to ignore, making things infinitely harder. She regards the stranger once more, wonders if she has someone to get home to, wonders if that someone is worrying where she is like Anne would if Kitty was gone. 

Suddenly, she is overcome with the thought of how kind and strong Kitty is despite everything. The abuse, the torments at school, the messy apocalypse she lives in now, yet Kitty has somehow managed to stay… good. Just very very good. 

She wishes more than ever that she was more like her cousin, and hopes as she mulls over her decision that one day she'll be just as empathetic. 

"Kit, help me get her onto my back." 

Maybe this could be a step closer in the right direction. 

When Cathy wakes up, she expects to still be lying on the cold hard forest floor. Anticipates the sound of a few zombies stumbling their way over to her and biting thin air in anticipation for her flesh, she thinks she might even see some tremendous white light upon opening her eyes that people used to talk about when they were on the brink of death. 

What she gets instead is jarring, to say the least. 

Cathy finds herself lying on her back in an incredibly snug bed, (well maybe not by the standards of before the world ended, but right now it's the most comfortable thing she’s woken up on in months), and the room she’s suddenly in filled in half-darkness, with a bit of light coming in from the moon that helps her bleary eyes focus in on her surroundings. Her head is still aching but it's a more bearable dull kind of ache, like the headaches she used to get before the outbreak after too little sleep and too much time on her laptop. In fact, she notices quickly that her body is no longer convulsing with fever, instead, she feels pleasantly cool with the soft quilt from the bed covering her, and she lets out a small relieved sigh that her arm is no longer screaming out in pain but rather whispering a few words of soreness to her. How was that possible though? Last she remembered the wound was unbearable to live with, and terribly infected from a lack of caring for it. She turns her head to see her arm resting on top of the covers and is surprised to see the bandages around her forearm are wrapped tightly and securely, unlike before. She lightly traces the bandages with a finger and feels the shape of stitches through the wrapping, grateful that whoever did it didn’t do as botched a job as she had. 

The juxtaposition of the room compared to where she was in the forest before forces Cathy to become more and more conscious, and soon panic starts to settle in her gut as her mind races on her whereabouts and who might be here with her. 

When she works out that her bag isn’t close by, her heart rate spikes, and she weakly tries to get up and find her gun to protect herself. But suddenly there are hands on her shoulders pushing her back on the bed. 

“Woah, easy there.” A voice suddenly says, and Cathy sees a woman with long dark hair wearing a green sleep shirt come into view. 

Blind panic takes over Cathy and her breathing picks up as she tries to fight against the arms holding her down. She’s careful not to use her injured arm to push the strangers’ hands away, but she’s altogether far too weak as the woman barely even breaks a sweat keeping her in the bed. 

“Calm down," the woman grits out, "I just don’t want you to hurt your ankle,” she removes a hand to point at the foot of the bed where Cathy’s right foot sits propped up on a cushion, “I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.” Cathy hesitates and continues her scuffle against the stranger, but decides to relent her weak struggle after a second (it’s definitely not the still throbbing head or the fact that she really doesn’t want to hurt her ankle that stops her) and she leans nervously back into the bed. 

“Thank you.” The woman sighs, and she slides a chair from across the room where she must have been sitting before over to the bed. She rubs a hand over her face as she collapses into it.

"Where-" Cathy tries to croak out until she realises how very dry her throat is, she swallows what little saliva is left in her mouth before continuing. "Where am I?" She finally says, her voice still a bit raspy. 

"You're in my cabin, you've been asleep for about three days now," the woman says calmly and she rests her head in her hand, "My cousin and I found you in the woods after you rolled down that hill half dead and brought you back here to heal you… a pretty good way to introduce yourself, by the way." She finishes with a small smirk.

Vaguely, Cathy recalls the sensation of being picked up, recalls waking up slightly conscious to feel cool water slip between her lips as well as medicine for all her injuries. 

"Ah… I remember that." Cathy says and she feels the ghost of a smile twitch at the corner of her lips (she doesn't let herself though, can't think of getting even a tiny bit close with whoever this was.)

The woman's friendliness is strange considering the circumstances. Cathy of course appreciates the help, dying from an infected wound would have been one of the more embarrassing deaths during a zombie apocalypse. But that’s just the thing, it is literally the apocalypse. And although it reassures her that finally, someone she just met isn’t actively trying to kill her, it mainly just confuses her. It was like someone throwing you an olive branch in a burning building, what was the point? They were all going to die eventually from this, so why be kind? 

Cathy is so busy thinking this over that she almost forgets about the absence of her things, and that horrible primal fear settles in her once more. 

"I'm assuming you took away all my stuff?" She asks anxiously, her hands twitching for the little leather book of notes. 

"Not very much there to take in the first place," the woman replies, picking at dirt underneath her fingernails lazily, "I only took your pistol. No offence or anything, I'm just not a big fan of getting possibly held at gunpoint in the night, y'know?" 

Cathy hums in understanding, plays with a corner of the quilt as she tries to soothe her fried nerves. 

"Plus, I've got a cousin to protect. So, please, just don't try anything. She really wants to see you alive for some reason," the woman looks her right in the eyes, a threatening glint sitting in them that makes Cathy gulp. "Just saying, it'd be kind of awkward if I had to kill you after everything we did to get you back in the land of the living." 

The sudden change in the woman's demeanour makes Cathy's breath catch in her throat, and she nods shakily, "Right. thanks for the whole uh... saving me thing, by the way." Cathy stammers out awkwardly, trying to regain a sense of peace between them, "I honestly don't want to hurt anyone, if anything I just want to get out of your hair as soon as possible." Cathy says in the most convincing tone she can muster. 

The woman keeps a suspicious gaze on her for a second longer before nodding, seemingly content with Cathy's answer as she looks over at the door. Cathy assumes the aforementioned cousin is on the other side, and she remembers enough about social cues to know to let the silence wallow. 

"If you're wondering if I took your book or that photo though, I didn't…" the woman's soft words break the quiet and make Cathy look up to meet her sympathetic gaze, "It's a nice picture, by the way." 

Her words cause a nostalgic ache to pulse through Cathy as she thinks of the photo, and she turns her head nodding.

"Didn't read your diary either. So, I'm pretty much a saint." The woman says in a light tone, strangely trying to get a smile out of Cathy, and she almost huffs out a laugh but catches herself at the last second. The woman frowns a bit at the lack of response, and Cathy feels a small unexplainable pang of guilt. She decides she should be a bit nicer to this woman as a token of thanks, after all, she did save her life, and Cathy is grateful. She couldn't exactly come up with a cure for zombie infections dead, could she? 

"What's your name?" Cathy eventually decides to ask after a few moments of comfortable silence, and she sees the woman roll her eyes. 

"Jesus, what is this? Twenty-one questions?" She jests as she stretches a cramped leg. The comment stuns Cathy for a second, but she lets herself smile all the same, it doesn't exactly meet her eyes, but it's enough to get the woman to return it. 

"I'm Anne. It's uh, nice to meet you."

"Anne..." Cathy murmurs, trying the name out for size. 

"Mhm, you gonna tell me your name anytime soon?" Anne asks with serene expression. 

Cathy thinks for a moment, and then she smiles, a little bit more genuinely this time, "Not exactly done with my twenty-one questions yet, am I?" 

The joke gets a wide grin out of Anne, and Cathy tries very, very hard not to think about the way it makes her stomach flutter. 

Cathy starts to regain her strength after a full two weeks of staying with the cousins, and every second she seems to get more and more restless to get out of the cabin and back to whatever she was doing prior to falling ill. 

“Why are you in such a rush to get out of here, anyway?” Anne asks as she watches Cathy limp from one end of the living room to the other from the armchair. 

“I told you,” Cathy grunts, not relenting her practice of walking on her bad ankle for even a second, “I want to get out of your hair as soon as possible.” 

“Do you have someone you need to get back to?” Kitty asks through a mouthful of rabbit meat, “we could go out and find them to tell them where you are, that way they won’t worry.” 

Cathy finally stills her incessant stumbling, and she leans against the wall looking a bit stunned by the question, "Oh, that's very kind of you Kitty, but there's no need for that, I don't have anyone to get back too." She finishes with a smile directed at the young girl. Kitty returns it, but Anne can tell her cousin is just as shocked as she is over Cathy not having someone waiting up for her. 

Kitty surprises Anne by getting along quite well with Cathy. In the old days, Kitty had barely any friends at school, she had talked about a few people in passing at dinner sometimes but never enough to assure Anne that they were more than acquaintances. She assumed it had a lot to do with the terrible rumours that were spread about her cousin paired with Kitty’s general shyness. But the reasoning hadn’t stopped her from feeling sad every time Kitty looked over longingly at a group of girls laughing when Anne would come and pick her up from school some days.

(Once, Kitty had brought home a girl to work on a history project with, and when Anne arrived from work later that day she was surprised to hear the small giggles coming from her cousins’ room. She will admit that she may have been a bit embarrassing upon finding Kitty with a sort-of-friend, even going as far as to ask the girl if she wanted to stay for dinner. The question made Kitty blush furiously, but the girl had just smiled shyly and shaken her head, admitting that she had to get home soon, but maybe another time. 

Anne had held onto the hope of “another time”, but of course, the blooming friendship was cut short by the gossip at school, and that was the end of that.) 

But once Kitty found Cathy awake the morning after she and Anne had introduced themselves, Kitty became unexpectedly hands-on with helping their guest. Helping her eat her meals, making sure she was comfortable each night and staying in the room with her throughout most of the day to quote, "keep her company". It confused Anne to no end and she worried about the time they were spending was putting Kitty in danger. But after days of no blood-curdling screams or the squelching sound of a blade piercing Kitty’s skin, she relented her stressing and decided not to question it, not wanting to make her cousin uncomfortable. Besides, it wasn't like Anne didn't indulge in Cathy’s company. 

Their friendship had officially started on the eighth day of Cathy staying with them.

“What're you reading?” Cathy had asked at around mid-day. 

Anne had been sitting in the living room, staring off into space as she tried to think of something to do to fill the rest of the day when she heard Cathy ask this question. 

“Oh, umm,” Kitty murmured, "It's this book Anne found at the library in town about art history. Talks about all the abstract expressionists like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, but it's got the postmodernists too, like Andy Warhol and Judy Chicago. I don't know… I think it's cool or whatever." Kitty trailed off nervously. 

"Yeah, definitely cool," Anne could hear the smile in Cathy’s voice and sighed with relief internally that she didn't try to put Kitty’s interest down. 

"You like history, then?" Cathy asked with interest that Anne prayed was genuine. 

"Yeah! It was my favourite subject at school." Kitty said excitedly, and Cathy hummed. 

"Me too, I was never super into art history, though." 

"I get that. I didn't get it back at school either, but I've been getting into drawing lately so I thought it would be good to learn about the people who paved the way." Kitty said enthusiastically.

"I've seen some of your stuff around the house. You're um, you're very good." Cathy said kindly. Her words made Anne grin, knowing that her cousin needed those words of affirmation. 

"Th-thank you." Kitty sputtered out eventually, and Anne stifled a giggle knowing Kitty’s cheeks were probably flaming red at the compliment. Cathy chuckled, and warm silence consumed the cabin once more. 

"Do you mind if I um-" a shuffling sound of bed sheets, and then, "-Do you mind if I read with you?" 

Kitty hadn’t responded immediately, and Anne had thought of going into the room to check she was ok, or at least make her feel a bit less awkward.

"It's alright if you don't want to I'm just, y'know, a bit bored and-"

"Oh no, it's not that! I'm just surprised that you want to," Kitty interrupted Cathy’s rambling, and Anne heard the sound of her cousin sliding off the chair she was sitting in, "I'd um... yeah, I'd love that." 

Since then, the house has often been filled with the sound of Cathy and Kitty’s chatter. They talk about history, the books they’ve both read, Kittys art, and all sorts of things in-between. She's happy that her cousin has found a type of kinship with their new friend, (friend is something that sounds strange in Anne’s mind, seeing as they just met and know basically nothing about each other. But like most things in the apocalypse, things move fast and you sort of just have to accept that not knowing the other person's favourite colour doesn’t matter anymore) and she always makes sure to send Cathy a grateful smile for indulging in conversations with Kitty. Cathy always returns it shyly, sometimes with a small blush that makes Anne feel fuzzy things in her chest. 

Now, she oddly finds herself getting quite sad over Cathy’s admission of not having someone. She can’t imagine being completely alone throughout this new way of living after having Kitty by her side this long. She almost asks about the woman she saw in Cathy’s picture but chooses not to after remembering the sorrowful look Cathy had when she brought it up that night they first spoke. 

“Just take it easy, alright?” Anne says instead, rising from her place in the armchair to wrap an arm around Cathy's shoulders to guide her to sit down. She feels Cathy tense under her, then relax once they get closer to the couch. 

“You might not have people out there,” Anne says and gestures lazily with a hand to what's outside, “But you’ve got us in here, so relax for a bit. I’m sure whatever's out there that you need to get to so badly isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.” She says and she rubs a hand nervously up and down her neck, hoping that Cathy will understand instead of thinking she’s some weirdo for worrying about her. 

After a moment of Cathy staring at her she eventually nods and smiles sheepishly, “I guess I’m due a short break,” she looks over to meet Kittys gaze, “You want to continue reading that book, Kat?” She asks, and her cousin nods enthusiastically before getting up and grabbing whatever book the two were obsessed with that day. 

Anne might ask one day about the woman in that picture. For now, she lets Cathy catch her breath. 

. 

“I think I’ll be moving on soon, now that my ankle has almost healed,” Cathy says during dinner after a month of staying with the cousins. 

Now that she’s able to walk almost entirely without struggle or with the sticks turned crutches Kitty had made her, she feels it's expected of her to leave. 

In retrospect she realises she has made this process a lot harder than it had to be, she didn't exactly have to worm her way into the cousins routine, but she had done so anyway. That useless feeling niggling away at her while she lounged around the house had ultimately done it, forcing her to ask Anne if there was anything she could do to help inside the cabin. Anne had looked apprehensive at first, maybe for the fear of Cathy putting the two in danger (she was sure Anne still felt this way, often caught her watching with an eagle when Cathy went anywhere around the house) or maybe the fact that Cathy's arm and ankle were still healing was a factor, she still wasn't sure which. Regardless, Anne let her organise supplies that day, and quickly it turned into helping out where she could with dinner, setting up traps, and other small chores around the house. It had caused Cathy to let herself indulge in a deeper friendship with the two of them, which she still feels a bit weird about, like she’s betraying Catalina by letting herself get close with these people. But it’s altogether quite hard not to like them when Kitty talks to her about everything she's missed talking about, and when Anne makes her laugh so effortlessly it's like breathing. 

But as much as she loves it, Cathy ultimately knows she has to go and get back to her journey of finding a cure, so she may as well bring it up now. 

“Oh,” Is all Kitty says in response, but Anne remains quiet, sipping water from her slightly rusted cup. 

“I’m sure I’ve overstayed my welcome at this point, and you’re probably sick of wasting your resources on me,” Cathy says awkwardly gesturing to the dinner of cooked squirrel and canned beans she helped Anne prepare. 

“It’s no problem at all,” Anne says, and Kitty nods her head enthusiastically at her cousin’s words.

“Yeah, we’ve really enjoyed you staying here,” Kitty says sincerely, and Cathy turns her head to see Anne with an almost identical look on her face. 

She considers their words while she moves around the food on her plate with a fork, letting herself imagine for just a second what life might look like if she let herself stay. 

Then she thinks about the zombies just outside, and how the people they were before they turned had this life taken away from them, and her mind is made up. 

“I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for me,” Cathy says, “But I just have somewhere I really need to be.” 

Kitty opens her mouth to say something, but Anne interrupts whatever it might be, “We understand,” she says with a sad smile, and she rises from her chair to place her finished dish in the sink, “When were you thinking of going?”

 _Well,_ Cathy thinks, _it’s now or never._

“Tomorrow morning.” She answers, and Kitty’s eyes widen in surprise. 

“What!?” Kitty says aghast, and the silverware in her hands drops roughly onto her plate. Cathy startles at the sudden outburst, she's never heard Kitty yell before, and clearly Anne is not used to it either, looking nervously at the both of them. 

Anne walks over to Kitty cautiously, "Kat-”, she starts with a hand reaching to console her cousin, but Kitty gets up and stumbles away from both of them, the sound of her chair scraping the wood floor makes Cathy wince.

“You can’t just leave! We haven’t given you a proper goodbye o-or anything! and now you’re just going to go?" Kitty’s spits out exasperated with her fists clenched tightly at her sides, looking at Cathy like she's just trodden on a puppy. Cathy spares a glance at Anne and their eyes meet for a second, silently she begs Anne to help her make Kitty understand why she has to go. But Anne looks away quickly, and suddenly Cathy has never felt so alone in this house. She swallows as she looks down at the floor. 

"It's better this way-"

"No! It's not! Why does everyone always do this? You want to get close to me and then you take off like it doesn't even matter! I thought-" Suddenly Kitty's eyes start to mist over and her expression of fury turns into one of immeasurable sadness, "-I thought we were friends.” her voice breaks and all Cathy can do is stare and feel like the worst person on the planet. 

“I’m so sorry-” Cathy starts to apologise but Kitty turns away from her and stomps off into her room without another word. The loud _BANG_ of Kittys door slamming makes both Anne and Cathy jump, and the silence that follows after is deafening. 

Cathy thinks this hurts far worse than the sprained ankle and scar on her arm combined

Anne goes into Kitty’s room later on that night to check on her. She decided beforehand to let her cool off, but now her arms were aching to hold and comfort her cousin. When she finds her, however, Kitty is fast asleep and curled up into a ball on top of the covers, clearly haven passed out from the exhaustion of her outburst. Anne smiles sadly down at her as she maneuvers Kitty as best she can under the covers, she whimpers slightly in her sleep and Anne shushes her gently, tucking her in soundly before pressing a light kiss to her hairline. Stepping out of the room she glances once more at Kittys sleeping form, watches her slow breathing for a second longer until she finally shuts the door softly. 

When Anne turns to face the living room she expects Cathy to be sitting on the couch where she left her, but instead, the place is empty, the only sign of Cathy being the bag she and Anne had packed with supplies for her journey. 

“Cathy?” Anne asks as she moves towards the kitchen, quiet enough as not to disturb Kitty in the other room but loud enough for someone to hear. She hears a muffled “Out here.” from outside, and Anne sighs as she walks across the room to open the cabin door. 

There she finds Cathy sitting on the steps leading up to the cabin, her blue coat with the fluffy hood wrapped snug around her scrawny body. Anne sits down next to her, the cold night air nipping at her skin enough to make her shiver, and she brings her knees up to her chest, pulling the sleeves of her jumper over her hands in an attempt to keep herself warm. 

Cathy doesn’t look at her, instead, she keeps a neutral gaze pointed at the dark night sky above them. It unsettles Anne greatly, she had expected tears or maybe even anger at her cousin's response of her leaving, but instead, Cathy is basically unreadable. 

She wants to fill the silence with something but then realises she doesn't know exactly what to say to Cathy. Should she beg her new friend to stay, or does she relent, and say her goodbyes now. Anne opens her mouth, hoping her tongue will make the decision for her, but then Cathy beats her to it.

"I’ve always loved the stars,” Cathy says softly, tilting her head back even more to look at the neverending night sky above them. Anne gives Cathy her full attention, knowing full well that to talk about the past during the apocalypse is deserving of that much. “There’s just always been something about them... when I was little my godmother would catch me up late at night still awake because I was too distracted by them to sleep,” Cathy chuckles, and Anne smiles at the thought of a wide-eyed baby Cathy being caught staying up past her bedtime. 

“I drove my godmother crazy asking for a telescope every day, but when I finally got one it was all ruined by Manchester’s awful light pollution, I couldn’t see any of the constellations properly,” Cathy shakes her head and then turns to meet Anne’s gaze, through the darkness, Anne sees a sad smile grace her lips, “The only good thing about the apocalypse? You can finally see the stars.” Cathy points up at the sky with a lone finger, and Anne turns her head up towards the night. 

Anne inhales as she takes in the breathtaking view above them, the small balls of light shining so brightly it’s as if they were doing it just for her. As she gapes at them she feels the tenseness in her body starts to drip away, the stars easing her very soul with their beauty, and suddenly she understands why Cathy came out here in the first place. 

They stay like that for a few more minutes, neither women able to tear their gaze away from the heavenly view above them. Until finally, Cathy drops her head to look at her lap.

"Kitty must hate me," she speaks up in a somber tone, and her words make Anne frown as she remembers the weight of the situation.

"She doesn't hate you, Cath. She's just… very upset right now." Anne stumbles a bit with her words as she tries to convince her, but Cathy shakes her head in response.

"I didn't even think she was going to miss me," Cathy admits softly, and Anne lets out a small scoff, but instantly wishes she hadn’t when Cathy flinches at the noise.

Anne exhales, letting any anger she felt go with her breath. "Of course she is.” she says delicately, “You've both gotten so close this past month, how could she not?" Anne stares at Cathy in disbelief, but she doesn’t look back, instead much more interested in the wood of the stairs chipping away. 

“I didn’t-” Cathy stops and licks her lips, “I didn’t think I would get so close to her. To you.” She finally raises her head to look at Anne, and her face is tender yet anxious. “She’s such a great kid,” Cathy says with such earnestness that it startles Anne a bit. The two of them had shared many conversations this past month, but never had they been this emotional or open with each other. Words escape Anne as she takes this new aspect of their relationship in, and all she can do is force her head to nod at Cathy's words. She hopes it’s enough for now.

Ultimately, Anne realises she doesn’t want this to end. Doesn't want to let Cathy go back out there, where Anne and Kitty aren't, but zombies and god knows what else are. She never expected her and Cathy to become friends, she thought she would just patch her wounds and then send the woman on her way. But now they are, and selfishly, she doesn't want it any other way. And she knows she could spout some other pathetic small talk or just general bullshit that usually comes out of her mouth, but Cathy is leaving tomorrow and that scares her too much. So she cuts to the chase. 

“What you said before,” Anne starts apprehensively, "about overstaying your welcome, you really aren't." Anne peeks a glance at Cathy, and she sees her expression has molded into one of surprise, her lips slightly parted and eyes wide. Instead of looking back Anne stares out at the woods in front of her and hopes that the comfort of the rustling branches and chirping of crickets will give her some bravery

"If you wanted to stay, we'd be happy to still have you. Kitty really likes you. I um- I like you..." Anne tries to sound nonchalant with her offer, but her twitching hands and blush on her cheeks probably give her away (she's suddenly very grateful for how dark it is.) Cathy says nothing, and momentarily Anne worries that she's overstepped and pointedly keeps her gaze away from her, suddenly very embarrassed that she's opening up her home and Cathy is not doing the basic act of either saying yes or no. 

But then she feels a calloused warm hand rest on her cold one where it lies on the stairs, and it's like an electric current runs through her whole body, so much so that she has to repress a shiver. Anne looks down to see Cathy's hand on top of hers (which is good that it's Cathy's, if it had been a disembodied hand that really would have been the cherry on top for a weird night), and when she looks back up Cathy is smiling at her timidly.

“Can I think about it?” She asks quietly, and Anne nods her head quickly.

“Yeah, of course you can.” Anne rushes her words in an attempt to make Cathy feel less awkward, and Cathy gives her hand a light squeeze and smiles at her seemingly grateful. The two of them stare into each others eyes for a second longer, but then Cathy shifts and looks up at the stars above them once more, the moment lost. 

The cold of the English night is becoming harder and harder to ignore, and Anne's legs are beginning to get pins and needles from sitting on the hardwood of the stairs for so long. But Cathy's hand is still in hers, and this might be the last time she gets to feel how great it is, how right it feels. So she drowns it all out and focuses on the little heat in her fingers, and thinks of how lovely Cathy looks in the moonlight.

Anne burrows herself deeper into the couch and blankets as the light from the morning sun bleeds into the living room of the cabin. She pokes the wrinkles and crevices of her pillow, wishes the softness would swallow her whole as she slowly remembers last night's conversation. She shuts her eyes tight, not yet ready to find out whether or not Cathy had actually taken her up on her offer and stayed, the covers feel like a shield around her, protecting her from whatever answer she may find outside of them. Still, curiosity starts to nibble at her bit by bit as she listens to the world beyond her soft blanket barrier. 

After Cathy's ankle no longer needed to be propped up, she had started to sleep in the armchair across from Anne, stating that the guilt of taking Kitty's bed away had been eating her up inside like a worm in a rotten apple. (Anne had absentmindedly wondered at that moment if Cathy was a writer before the apocalypse.) So she had become quite used to hearing Cathy's tiny snores when she woke up each morning. Yet the only sounds she hears now are the creaks of the old cabin and her own shallow breaths. She shivers from the sudden change. 

Anne starts to do the maths in her head of how many times she’s woken up and hasn’t heard the snoring, but then realises she’s being quite stupid, she could just open her eyes and check if her friend was there or not. 

(She really doesn’t like the ‘or not’ part) 

Anne inhales a quick breath and rolls onto her back, cringing at the sunlight shining through the room. She lets her eyes adjust, slowly props herself up on her elbows, and-

_Oh,_

An empty armchair with spotty patterned blankets folded into a neat pile greets her.

_She’s left._

A horrible ache fills up in her chest after the shock of Cathy's absence dissipates, and it leaves Anne almost breathless. There's a tiny voice in the back of her head telling her she's silly because they had only known each other for, what, a month? And what had they even chatted about? Stupid things like if the trap one of them was setting up looked alright, how Cathys wounds were feeling, and, “Hows the perimeter look?” with usually a reply of, “All clear.” It wasn’t exactly meaningful memories that they could reminisce over with a bottle of wine one night (if bottles of wine even existed anymore, that is), so why does she feel this cold and horrible emptiness without Cathy? 

Despite all these embarrassing feelings, Anne decides to let herself feel them in their entirety. The strange loneliness, the small bubbles of anger that pop in her stomach, the choking sadness that’s crawling up her throat, she lets all of them exist quietly, lets them take a hold of her body as she brings her knees up to her chest and wipes away a stray tear. 

But then, a crackle of noise behind her, making her jump up from her curled position with wide eyes. Anne grabs the knife she sleeps with under her pillow and swiftly turns around, expecting to be met with some zombie that somehow had made its way in. Or maybe even worse but an actual living human being with weapons and strength that she can’t match who will take her food and her guns and her bow and oh God Kitty could be dead right now and she might not know-

But it’s not a zombie. 

It's not a human intruder. 

It's just a human. One with curly hair, moving softly around her kitchen.

Cathy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this chapter, I would like to apoligise for how embarrassingly long it took to get out. As this was being written I had a lot of internals for school being due and my country was slowly moving out of its 2 month lockdown, so I've just generally not had a lot of time to write while getting back into being in physical classes and catching up on work (Kittys interest in art history was absolutely based on me simultaneously writing two reports for that class. if I see an abstract expressionist on the street, I floor it.) 
> 
> I also struggled with this chapter a lot as there were many feelings I wanted to represent that come with an apocalypse setting which I feel are forgotten. A lot of times I see characters in this setting trusting really quickly or just being really great at talking to new people when I think that wouldn't happen so easily. Especially if you've been on your own for so long (in Cathy's case) or if you've only been with one person (in Anne and Kittys case), I think that mistrust would always be there just a little and you'd probably be pretty crap at speaking to someone normally again. However at the same time, I think that loneliness is very consuming, and you would want that connection again so badly when everything around you sucks, so I tried very hard to represent this complex cocktail of emotions. Hopefully it's consistent? I would love to hear what you guys think if you have any comments on how I showed this! Any feedback is appreciated though of course.
> 
> Once again, thank you for reading! I can't be certain when the next update is, but I have the whole next chapter planned out as well as a couple of others, and I'm excited to start it ;)
> 
> (Much love to Brook, Celine, Amelia, and all my friends who have been so supportive as I've been writing this. I’m forever grateful <3)


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